Chile cracks down on migrants, many still try their luck

In the pitch black of the moonless Chilean desert night, the Cuban man is hard to spot until he is within yards of the border.

Placing a small backpack of clothes on the ground, Yoniel Torres, 31, a father of two, puts his hands up as police approach with flashlights and take him into custody.

"A coyote (people trafficker) left me near (Peruvian border town) Tacna and told me to follow the old railway line," he tells Reuters as he is led away. "This is all horrible. The journey was so hard. I just came in search of a better life."

16 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

Policemen look out from a watchtower at the Chilean and Peruvian border.

Scenes like this are replicated every day along Chile's long land border. The country is hardening its stance towards immigration, and refused to sign a United Nations migration pact last week aimed at improving migrant integration and protection.

18 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

Haitian migrant Stephane (19) hides his face as he poses for a photograph.

Global attention largely falls on perilous Mediterranean Sea crossings and the uncertain fate of the Central American caravan at the U.S.-Mexico border. But Chile and other comparatively wealthy Latin American nations are absorbing another wave of mass migration from destitute nations in the region like Haiti and Venezuela.

15 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

Arica city near the Chilean and Peruvian border.

Some migrants, like Torres, travel up to 5,600 miles (9,000 km) by air and land to get as far as Chile. The country has the highest GDP per capita in South America, low levels of corruption and the lowest murder rate, World Bank and InSight Crime figures show.

They endure Amazonian humidity then extreme temperatures and high altitude in the deserts between Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

Immigration into Chile has increased sixfold in less than 30 years, from 114,500 in the 1992 census, to 746,465 last year.

17 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

Undocumented Bolivian migrant known as Elvis, 40, uses a mobile phone after work.

There has also been a spike in illegal migration. In the dusty Arica region at Peru's southern border, Chilean police say they caught more than 2,200 foreigners attempting to enter the country illegally between January and November, up 80 percent from the previous year.

Guided in many cases by traffickers paid as much as $3,000, police say, they cross in remote areas to avoid border guards, risking a fatal encounter with landmines planted on the frontier decades ago on the orders of former dictator Augusto Pinochet.

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18 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

An effigy hangs at a fence next a banner reading "No more robberies. People caught stealing will be burned. Community justice."

17 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

An undocumented Bolivian migrant washes his clothes where he works as his dog looks on.

16 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

Migrant Mislady Herrera from Cuba who was detained by the police is transported to an immigration office in Arica.

16 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

Migrants' clothes are seen during a police patrol.

14 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

Migrant Yoniel Torres (31) from Cuba is handcuffed after being detained by the police.

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"There are scars that might never heal, not only from the journey but also once in Chile because they find the situation is totally different to the one they thought they would find,” he says.

16 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

Venezuelan migrant Enrique Miller (44) takes a picture of customers at a restaurant.

Those who make it to Chile often live a precarious existence. Haitians, Dominicans, and Bolivians live cheek by jowl in tumbledown neighborhoods like Arica's Cerro Chuno, scraping together a living working in restaurants and mines. Racism and job discrimination is common.

The 29 countries who refused to sign the UN Migration Pact argue that it undermines their sovereignty.

"People have a right to leave their country when they feel it is right," Chilean Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero told a Senate committee last week. "But ... they cannot go to any country they want to."

17 Nov 2018. Arica, Chile. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado

Undocumented Bolivian migrant known as Ramiro (39) arrives at the camp where he works.